


they've got potions together

by okaypottah



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drarry, Fluff, Gay Bois in Love, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Pining Harry Potter, draco x harry - Freeform, potions disaster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-03-30 22:39:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19037038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okaypottah/pseuds/okaypottah
Summary: “Please tell me it’s not one of those ‘Wizarding World versions of Muggle phrases’ that you keep doing.”





	they've got potions together

**Author's Note:**

> something i wrote for a contest hosted by the lovely @/dracomalfoypotter ! (it's over now) your girl made it to the finals:)

“You’re supposed to _chop_ the knotgrass before adding them, you utter _idiot_.”

  
Harry watches as Malfoy scrambles over to his side and shoves him to the side, colourful curses slipping past his lips as his eyes scan the potion which was rapidly turning a pale yellow colour. Their hands brush as the Slytherin reaches out for the handle of the stirrer Harry was holding, and Harry jerks away from the touch, cheeks warming up as the pleasant smell of apples and vanilla invaded his nose.

  
He steps to the other side, where Malfoy previously stood taking notes cause _I’ve already done the complicated part of the potion, I can trust the Saviour to just add the last ingredient, yes?_ which apparently was a big No because Harry is the Worst at the subject, not only because he’d had a teacher who loathed him for the better part of his school years, but also because for the entirely of Eighth Year, Slughorn had decided to assign partners and for some reason, he’d got _Malfoy_ , out of everyone, and he’s extremely distracting, okay, with the way he pushes strands of his white-blonde hair behind his ear as he chops, slices and stirs, biting down on that pink bottom lip that is just _so fucking k_ –

  
“–no fixing this. It’s all your fault, Potter, can you even do _one goddamn thing_ accurately? I–“ Harry blinks, discarding his train of thoughts that were getting a bit, _ah_ , too much, and looks at Malfoy, who’s pinching the bridge of his nose. “Salazar, I can’t believe I survived the War only to beg for the sweet release of death because of your atrocious Potions skills.”

  
Harry’s only opened his mouth to shoot back a retort when Professor Slughorn comes over to their table, with the smile he always sports when he sees Harry. “Hello, Harry, Draco.” His smile dims when he looks at their cauldron and Harry feels the weight of the disappointed stare as he looks between the two Eighth Years. “I– That’s the second potion you’ve failed to do this week, boys. Is there a problem?”

  
Ah, right. The last time was his fault too– he’d stirred the potion clockwise instead of anti-clockwise and the draught had turned deep green instead of milky white All because Malfoy had taken off his outer robes and when he bent over for the _briefest_ of seconds to pick up the quill he dropped, Harry got an eyeful of the perfect bubble butt hugged by tight-fitted trousers and he _lost_ it.

  
Harry is a disaster, let it never be forgotten.

  
Back to present, Harry averts his gaze, mumbling, “No, sir.”

  
Slughorn turns to Malfoy. “Harry’s Potions skills are .. questionable sometimes– but you, Draco, you are one of the finest brewers Hogwarts has ever had. What’s wrong?” Almost as an afterthought, he adds, “I thought you two would balance each other out– but it clearly didn’t work out. I don’t want to have to fail bright students just because I did what I thought was right. Do you perhaps need to change partners?”

  
Harry’s stomach drops, and he looks at the blonde in question, who’s staring at their ruined potion with his jaw clenched. Harry’s horrendous at Potions, so this is the part where Draco the Great Potion Brewer shifts all the blame on Harry and gets paired with someone else.

  
At least that’s what Harry thinks. So when Draco does the complete opposite, Harry’s surprised.

  
“It was my fault,” He says in a neutral tone. “I added one bat spleen instead of two.” He holds Slughorn’s stare, “I apologize. I’ve been .. distracted.”

  
Harry’s head takes a moment to process his words because he didn’t just .. he .. Slytherin .. own neck .. what?

  
Professor’s eyes soften, and he proceeds to ask him in a carefully controlled tone if someone was giving him trouble, to which he shakes his head, making the older Slytherin sigh. “I understand, but I cannot excuse this behaviour since I don’t support favouritism. Every student should be treated equally regardless of their blood status or intel capacity, yes?”

  
Harry almost snorts at the favouritism, nodding his head as he looks at the Professor. He glances at Malfoy out of the corner of his eye as Slughorn takes one more look at their cauldron.

  
“Detention tonight.” He announces, “Meet me here after dinner.” He then, walks over to the next table.

  
Malfoy resumes scribbling away on his parchment as Harry thinks of words that he can say. _Thanks for the save back there, sorry I got distracted by you also I thought you Slytherins would throw others under the bus to save yourself??_ He taps his feet nervously, and when he finally does open his mouth to apologize, Professor’s voice calls out from the front of the class, announcing that class was over.

  
When Harry turns his attention back to their table, he finds it empty. All he catches is a blur of white-blonde hair before it’s out the door, making him sigh and pack his own stuff.

  
*

  
“They’ve got Potions together.”

  
“They’ve go– what do you even mean?” A pause. “Please tell me it’s not one of those ‘Wizarding World versions of Muggle phrases’ that you keep doing.”

  
“... okay, I won’t.” Brows furrow. “But aren’t Chemistry and Potions similar? You mix stuff to create new stuff in both of them.”

  
“To a certain degree, yes, they are synonymous, but saying ‘they’ve got Chemistry together’ sounds better than ‘they’ve got Potions together.’ ” An exasperated sigh. “Now, shall we go get our lovesick-but-too-damn-stupid-to-do-anything-about-it friend, Ron?”

  
“Ooo, did you just say the D-word– ow, _ow,_ okay, ‘Mione, _sorry_ , s–“

  
*

  
Nine pm finds Harry and Malfoy cleaning the cauldrons, without magic, in complete silence except for their actions. Slughorn’d left about fifteen minutes ago for some meeting that Headmistress McGonagall had called, instructing them about what they had to do before he left; “clean the cauldrons, tables, and arrange the ingredients in order to the inventory list you’ll find on my table. Try to finish as early as you can, you’ve got Potions first hour tomorrow and I better see both of your faces. Night.”

  
They’ve only talked once ever since they arrived, and that too was Draco telling him in a monotonous voice that he’d be doing the arrangement part which is why Harry’s stuck doing the cauldrons. But he’s had practice with cleaning– from his days back with the Dursley’s so before he knows it he’d done.

  
Malfoy’s still not done if the clinking of glass jars coming from the storage room is any indication. He runs a hand through his hair, making his way to the room. He stands at the threshold, taking a moment to just look, as Malfoy stands on his toes to place on of the jars on the most top shelf.

  
Harry almost chuckles at the scene– _once upon a time,_ Malfoy used to be taller than Harry and missed no opportunity to shove it in his face but now, even Harry has to admit that he’s had a very 180° glo-up. His hair was still a mess, but he’d grown tall, standing almost a head above Malfoy. From working out over the summer– in order to take his mind off things, mostly– he’d got _bulging biceps and glorious abs_ , as Ginny puts it.

  
They’d broken up on good terms after Ginny told him about how she feels about Luna. He’d been happy for her, and shortly after came out as bisexual when he couldn’t decide who looked hotter between the celeb couple on the poster the one time they went to Muggle London to watch a movie. They’d all had a good laugh about it, and the sense of acceptance from his friends made him feel warm inside.

  
Multiply that feeling by a million and you get what Harry feels about Draco.

  
And sensing tonight’s detention as a sign from the gods above to make a fucking _move_ , Harry fixes the mess of hair on top of his head before clearing his throat. “Do you –“

  
Maybe Harry read it wrong, as he often does, maybe the gods were just doing it for a laugh and were currently munching on pop-corn, pointing at him and yelling ‘HAH! YOU THOUGHT!” because Malfoy jumps, _literally_ , at his voice and the glass jar falls to the floor, the shatter of glass making both of them wince as the floor gets smeared with what looked like salamander intestines.

  
“You _fucking_ idiot.” Malfoy fixes him with a piecing gaze as Harry enters the room, his hands spread in a gesture that he wants to help. “I did it once but I’m not taking the blame again, you good-for-nothing, clumsy oaf.”

  
Harry makes an offended noise in the back of his throat, coming to a stop about four steps away from the blonde. Brows furrowed, he says, “Well, I didn’t ask you to do that, did I now?”

  
Malfoy doesn’t answer, simply ignores him in favour of cleaning up the mess.

  
“Why did you do it anyway?” Harry continues as Malfoy crouches and begins picking up the glass shards with his hand since they weren’t allowed to use magic. “You always tell me how bad I am at Potions and yet you don’t change me when you get the chance but instead, you go ahead and take the blame for the potion I ruined. It’s almost like you _want_ to be my partne–“

  
Malfoy clenches his jaw as he drops one of the shards from his hand, making it break into even smaller pieces.

  
The words keep spilling out of his mouth, months, even years, of frustration just coming out. “Almost like the whole hating me thing was just a fucking _act_ and that you actually–“ Harry’s eyes widen a fraction, and his heart beats in his ears as he concludes, “you actually _lo_ –“

  
Malfoy cusses loudly, clutching his finger which was now bleeding, having cut against the sharp edge of one of the glass shards. He falls on his knees, sitting on his calves and Harry swears under his breath, mind going blank as he gets to Draco in two long strides and falls to his knees in front of him, gently taking the bleeding hand into his own.

  
Malfoy’s hands feel cooler against his, a pale contrast to his tan skin, and he curses once more when he realizes he’d left his wand in the other room. “Hey, uh, I’m just gonna go get my wa –“

  
He stops abruptly when he looks into silver eyes glazed with moisture. He frowns, momentarily confused. “I didn’t– Is the cut too deep? Shit, I thought –“

  
Malfoy shuts his eyes and Harry falters as a tear traces its way down his cheek. I shouldn’t said anything Draco’s _crying oh fuck_ – he panics, “Okay, I’m gonna call Pomfrey just –“

  
A wet chuckle. “No, Potter, I just,” He inhales a shuddering breath. “I’m fine, I just need a moment.”

  
“I .. okay.” Harry replies and they just sit there, Harry on his knees in front of a crying Malfoy with his flecks of blood on his hands and all Harry can do is look.

The slightly upturned nose, the pointy jaw, the small black dot on his left brow bone, the pale blonde lashes resting high on his defined cheekbones, and the plump pink lips he’s dreamt of for the last several months, maybe even more and when those slightly red-rimmed eyes open, silver with flecks of grey, he feels like the entire world’s been reduced to them two only.

  
“I’m sorry for messing up the potion,” he blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind, his nerves getting all jittery, “I’m sorry, I know I’m the worst at it but honestly I try not ruining it but then I look at you and just–“

  
Harry stops, breath hitching in his throat. Is he going to .. His mouth goes dry, his heart beats erratically in his chest as he takes a deep breath and says. “I look at you and I don’t want to look away. Ever.”

  
Green eyes meet silver.

  
After a beat, Malfoy says, “Remember what I said to Slughorn? About being distracted?” Harry nods slowly, “I .. you’re the distraction, Potter.” He averts his gaze, and Harry sees as his cheeks turn pink. “Of course I don’t mess up my potions because of it as I’m not pathetic but still I –“

  
Harry blinks a couple of times before a grin breaks out on his face. “You like me?”

  
“Do I have to spell it out for you?” The blonde feigns annoyance as Harry positively beams at him, his cheeks and tips of ears turning red. “Yes, you stupid, for some godforsaken reason, I love you–“

  
He doesn’t get to finish because Harry hears the L-word and presses his lips to Draco’s soft ones in a kiss, but just as he makes to pull away, Draco rises to his knees, hands going up to fist the front of Harry’s t-shirt, pushing him back.

  
Harry lets out a ‘oof!’ as Draco’s thighs bracket his hips, his hands finding home around the blonde’s waist as he’s pushed backwards till he’s lying on his back, their lips still pressed together. It’s all teeth and tongue and skin and wandering hands until they finally break apart for air.

  
Draco with his blonde hair all tousled up, his slightly parted lips red bitten and cheeks flushed red, is a sight that Harry will remember till the day he dies. And then, those luscious lips curl into a smile, silver eyes twinkling as he says.

  
“I said the L-word. Surely you wouldn’t have given me just a peck on the lips,” He arches a brow and the pads of Harry’s thumbs run over the jutting hipbones as he breathes out.

  
“I love you.”

  
“I sure hope you do.” He jokes before bending over and pressing a light kiss to the corner of Harry’s lips, making him _melt_. “I love you too,” He stops, “Harry.”

**Author's Note:**

> say hi on tumblr! @/okaypottah


End file.
